i'm revealing my entry level skills at salt fishing / boating by posting this but we all gotta learn, and this deals with florida gulf waters so dont get mad but texans are much friendlier than floridians ! bought a chart of an area inshore that i want to fish by boat it's the crystal river area on the gulf side of florida, my chart map shows where the channels and markers are. it also shows tons of rock beds or sand bars that aren't shown on other maps, maby oyster beds. i think they are under water at high tide and dangerous at low tide. there are so many i dont think i could navigate thru them at an idle and feel safe ! i could go straight out the channel and be safe but the chart shows good fishing amongst those under water hazards. would some of you experienced mariners please chime in with some words of wisdom. thanks !

I only kayak, but it floats as any boat and I still have to be careful.
Any oyster reef is good enough to cut a hole in my kayak if I paddle into it.

The first thing I would probably do is find out how much water your boat displaces (how deep does the keel of your boat go, and include the length of your outboard when lowered). It'll give you a good idea of how shallow you can go. Skiffs can displace 4", CC's can displace a lot more.

If you're in unfamiliar waters, have that map and GPS on hand and navigate carefully.
My Navionics app informs me of nearby hazards (reefs, standing timber, underwater wrecks).

Be well informed of the predicted tides for the specific day you'll be out on the water. Some reefs I fish at are only 2-3" under the surface during high tide. In low tide, I can see them a mile away



Don't think it's safe, BE SURE it's safe.

first time i've heard of an navionics app. time to do some googling, and i found out that they are oyster beds.

perhaps i should jump to this, would a combo fish finder / gps with loaded charts show these same obstructions ? then i could navigate right between all of it while watching my screen ? my lowrance i have now is outdated anyway !

A good pair of eyes are way more useful than a computer screen.
Most of our bays here are ultra-shallow, and are covered up with all manners of things to stick a boat on. Most seasoned hands here will be running shallow running hulls, tunnels, cats, jets, etc. Way easier to navigate 6" deep hazards than 24" deep ones.

Even then, best laid plans sometimes go a little wonky....

The tide tables for your area are also your friend. You need to know when to get out and in many cases, that's when the tide starts moving out.

i better post a pic of my rig as a before pic, maby some day i'll be posting an after like Pat ! as long as it's on sand and not an oyster bed ! iam gonna do some measuring to see how much water she treads. it's a predator boat supposedly made just for the bay. freshwater trailer but i guess i can powerwash it after each use.

And make sure you pay attention to how the wind will blow the tide out...

I've been there before myself.. almost spent the night in East Matty on a sandbar. LOL. It happens to the best of us.

Good morning Paul,

The Navionics app is a must for any boater & angler.
It's well worth the $15.

If you're seriously looking into a fishfinder/GPS graph, they also make specific chips for the bodies of water you'll be in.


Nice boat btw.

it's actually an old oklahoma lake patrol boat i bought at the sheriff auction, $4700 then had to have the evinrude 88 spl bored out & new pistons, ( low compression ) but i've certainly got my use out of it for fresh water. you cant see in the pics but it has about 12 different rod holders mounted ALL over. did a lot of cat fishing from her.
that's about the cleanest it's ever been. i've been patching the nicks and dings on the hull with marine tex.
my cousin who was born and raised in florida ( now lives in utah ) makes fishing trips often to florida & told me mine would be fine for inshore fishing, i was leery about that till i just spent 2 weeks down there and saw some of the old. old old. boats the guys were taking out. convinced me that mine would be fine. spent a day at the boat ramp fishing & trying to get a little info about the area from the guys coming in, i'll say they are about the most unfriendly bunch i've seen ! one guy had a nice catch of tripple tails, i asked him where he caught em at. he told me that answer would cost me $400 !!! they act like i'm gonna go out there and use their spot and catch every fish alive ! i share my spots all the time, even where i caught the 67 pound lake record blue cat. there's plenty of fish out there. Adan, i spoke with garmin about some of their echo map series fish finders, they come pre loaded with all us coastal charts from ( noaa ) prices start around $400

That painted trailer won't be living long after it gets dunked in saltwater. Sorry to be bearer of bad news.

ya, and that's where i get into the : do i get an aluminum or galvanized trailer for the same boat / or upgrade to a newer boat all ready for the salt. decisions , decisions. one good thing is that the crystal river which flows into the gulf is spring fed fresh water 73 degrees all year long. launch boat in fresh water/ drive to salt water. wont do me any good at the texas bay area though. one reason i've been kinda hot and heavy on the florida fishing is that my brother in law moved there and that gives me a place to stay at no cost, park the boat ect. and he likes to fish also. it's just 1000 miles away !

I lived in Central Florida and fished Florida fresh and salt over 10 years. I was the second owner on an old 15 foot Flair skiff, it floated in 6 inches of water with two people and gear. I mostly fished inshore around Sebastian, and Tampa Bay area. They guy I bought the boat from just put a new galvanized trailer under it because the original one rusted through and broke in half, I sold it with that same trailer under it. The secret to it was to dunk it in a fresh water lake on the way home from a fishing trip, every trip. I also ran the motor and all the pumps, including bilge while at the ramp. If I had to replace that trailer again, it would have been aluminum.

Having an older boat makes it a lot easier to take when you pull it out on the trailer and see what looks like a cat tried to claw it's way into the hull. It happens, even to the most experienced. I became a fiberglass patching pro (not really only worked on it twice). Glass beads and rosin fixes that stuff up lickety split, I'll tell ya. A pole and trolling motor is your friend. Nice part is that the water is usually clear enough that you can see obstacles when you are polling real skinny.

Texas skinny is different, no matter what anybody tells you, that is why our flats boats look a lot different. Biggest thing is to know your boat, and go where it can go safely and don't push it.

Paul, while I'm no expert, my advice is not to take that rig into 12 inches of water. You may get in....but getting UP and out is a different story.

And yeah, the trailer has to go. Sell it and swap it out now, while it's still worth a few bucks. You can get $800 or more for it now. Later....zero.

A brand new galvanized trailer for that boat will probably run you $1800 at the very least. $2200 for alum.

I dunno about running that rig too skinny, take a ruler and look long and hard about how shallow a foot really is. looking at the picture, and all you can see is the top of the cowl, doesn't scream skinny water boat (to me, far from an expert)

ditch that painted trailer too, not sure where you are, but I have a galvanized trailer I will let go cheap, its for an RFL, so it is flat, but shouldn't be too tough to make it work. it has 4 new goodyear tires,